The development of kettle drums, or timpani, can be traced back to early Egyptian times. Even the early kettle drums in use over a hundred years ago consisted generally of a copper bowl or body provided with a head or skin composed of various selected leather materials. In order to regulate the pitch or degree of tightness of the skin, typically a ring affixed to the outer surrounding edge of the skin would be secured to the body by screws and, by turning the screws the skin could be more or less strained resulting in higher or lower notes, respectively. The body itself would rest on a suitable pedestal or stand.
The tuning of kettle drums over the years however has always been considered to be a difficult task and connected with a considerable loss of time. For this reason composers were often compelled to permit the timpani player a certain number of bars rest whenever a change of pitch was required. It became the practice for the player to employ only the two or three fastening screws nearest to him for tuning, as a result of which the outer ring would get out of position, the tension of the skin would be uneven, and different notes would be given near the different fastening screws. Thus, several approaches were conceived for constructing an instrument such that the tension of the skin could be affected evenly around the ring by one single turning of the hand. Among the various approaches that have been proposed in the past are a system of levers connected with the ring that secures the skin; also, a revolving kettle drum which is tuned by turning the main body or bowl to the right or left. Tuning mechanisms have been employed which were located either interiorly of the drum or underneath the body of the drum, such as, by the use of a pedal control in order to avoid tuning by hand. Typical pedal mechanisms consist of a lever which has at one end a shoe and a heavy club or ball and at the other end a shaft with a so-called eccentric which presses upon a lever with a bolt in the middle by which the plate is moved. By moving the pedal downwardly to raise the pitch, or upwardly to lower it, it can then be pressed sidewise to fall into a tooth of a rack so as to fix it in place. Typically, the rack would be provided with a dial and pointer associated therewith to indicate whether the desired pitch has been reached. Nevertheless the foregoing approaches did not successfully overcome the problem of selected tuning at different individual points along the surface of the stem. For instance, a major difficulty in employing separate tuning screws which are fixed directly to the outer ring securing the head or skin is the time and labor required for changing or replacement of the head. In the past this has necessitated individual removal of each screw before the head and outer ring or flesh hoop could be removed and replaced. Accordingly, there is a demonstrated need for a tuning system for timpanis and the like which permits accurate tuning of the head or skin by uniform stretching over the entire surface, individual tuning at different locations along the skin for playing different notes while at the same time incorporating the collective and individual tuning units into a single assembly which is removably but positively secured at selected intervals along the outer edge of the head so as to facilitate ease of replacement of the head.